BRATTLEBORO, Vt. ó The Brattleboro Retreat psychiatric hospital again faces sanctions from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

A February survey found the hospital was not in compliance with federal, state and local laws, and also to have had substantial deficiencies in protecting patientsí rights, according to a letter to the hospitalís employees on Wednesday. The Retreat also did not follow its own quality assessment and performance improvement program, the survey found.

CEO Rob Simpson said in the letter that CMS considers the deficiencies serious enough to limit the hospitalís capacity to render adequate care, the Brattleboro Reformer reported .

The Retreat will now be subject to an unannounced Medicare survey from the Vermont Division of Licensing and Protection. The Retreat will then have to submit a plan for correcting the deficiencies.

ďI am optimistic that we will correct these deficiencies just as we have in the past,Ē Simpson wrote.

The Retreat has been contending with a series of visits from CMS after a patient died from an overdose last year after stealing drugs.

A report last June found problems with governance and quality assessment at the hospital. The Retreat faced losing its federal Medicare funding before it submitted a corrective plan to address the CMS violations.